Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Courtney Krueger. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Courtney, appreciate you joining us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

I’d say it took me a good 4-5 years to finally hit full-time in my business. The first 1-2 years were definitely the hardest and were a rude awakening for me because I didn’t realize how long it would actually take and how hard it would be.

You see a lot of “successful” people having online businesses but you don’t know what truly goes on behind the scenes. I lived paycheck to paycheck and used credit cards for anything else for quite awhile wondering when it was finally going to take off.

There were so many times I wanted to give up or questioned if I made the right decision to keep investing in something that maybe wasn’t going to happen but I also had a gut feeling that this is what I was meant to do. Something kept telling me to keep going, so I did.

It was a long journey but in hindsight everything happened for a reason and could’ve taken a lot longer.

The biggest turning point for me was hiring a coach that helped me find clarity and create a plan with daily, weekly, monthly action steps to get to where I wanted to be. I started tapping into a skillset I had that could also solve a problem for online entrepreneurs.

I had a design background and also worked at a tech company that was an online course platform. All of these pieces lined up and I started meeting the right people by putting myself out there offering my services. One thing led to another and it continued to grow into what it is today.

Knowing what I know now, I would tell someone who’s just starting out to pick one skillset you’re good at or one problem that you can solve for a specific group of people and start reaching out to them to offer your service.

Create a social media account on the platform where your ideal client is hanging out and start providing free value. Show up every single day by creating content, having conversations and offering your service/offer to help solve their problem.

Lessons I learned along the way that might help someone else:

The sooner you get comfortable with rejection and putting yourself out there the faster you’ll learn what works and what doesn’t. If they say no, it could just mean not right now and there’s plenty of other people who do need your help.

Jump in and figure out the rest as you go. It doesn’t have to be perfect because you’ll perfect it as you grow and get feedback from clients.

The fortune is in the follow up and even the second to third follow up.

Keep things simple because if you confuse, you lose. Simple is scalable.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m the owner and CEO of Courtney Marie & Co., a design agency helping coaches, course creators and service providers increase their revenue and impact through branding and web design. Our specialty is in Kajabi and Showit websites.

We offer custom solutions as well as diy or semi-custom solutions for the business owner who is just starting out or ready to scale their business to 6-7 figures.

After working at Kajabi, an all-in-one course platform, I met a lot of entrepreneurs who needed help with the tech side of the platform. So I started offering my help on an hourly basis. This eventually turned into helping them with design work as well since I had a background for this and did all of my own design work.

It quickly turned into a business that I hadn’t planned for but was such a blessing in disguise. It started as a side hustle to make money and is now a team of people helping other business owners scale their businesses.

I knew I always wanted to help people but didn’t quite know what that looked like until now and it’s so cool to be a part of someone’s business success.

Looking back I can see how everything I went through or learned has led up to this very moment. I have a background in design, fitness, marketing and starting an online business therefore I’m able to apply all of this knowledge to help our clients create a brand/website that aligns with their personality while also attracting their ideal clients.

My focus is always on how can we make things better for our clients and our team. We’ve been able to accomplish this through a streamlined customer experience while also providing our clients with resources that further support their business.

We apply this same perspective when creating a brand/website by asking, “how we can make this easy for the client to know who we are, what we do/offer, and where to go”. There’s much more that goes into a brand or website than just design.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I first started in the online space as a fitness coach. I went to school for advertising/design but wanted to pursue a career in personal training. After college I moved from Nebraska to California to pursue this new career. I got to learn from some of the best and loved what I did. I eventually started offering services online because I knew trading time for money wasn’t what I wanted to be doing for the rest of my life.

I dabbled a lot trying to figure out all the things (how to grow an audience, how to find clients, what to offer, pricing your offer, etc.). I eventually hired a coach that finally brought so much clarity. I had an online fitness business and was making money while working from home…

Sure I made decent money while still having a part-time job but I could quickly see how this was going to take a lot longer than I thought and wasn’t sure if this was the path for me.

I tried the full-time job thing and that wasn’t for me either. So here I am thinking, what am I going to do? Am I going to be hustling for the rest of my life trying to make $3-5k/month? Should I just give up this dream?

But I couldn’t give up. I told myself I would find a way no matter how long it took me.

I had to let go of the identity I tied to this fitness business and being okay with stepping away from it. I had to let go of caring what other people thought of me for switching or pivoting into a new career.

Once I truly let go and focused on a skillset I had been putting to the side (design), that’s when things took off.

My message from sharing this story would be…

1. Be okay with trying new things and changing your mind.

2. Be open to exploring new opportunities.

3. Your identity isn’t in what you do or the type of business you have.

4. Other people’s opinions don’t pay your bills or create your happiness. Those who truly support you will be happy if you’re happy.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I always thought I didn’t like sales or wasn’t good at it or didn’t want to be that salesy person. Whenever I heard the word sales I always thought of the car salesman or retail associate that wouldn’t leave you alone until you bought something.

Starting a business will quickly make you realize that your business runs off of sales so you have to learn how to be a good sales person.

For me I had to unlearn this negative relationship with sales and learn that it’s simply offering your service/offer to help someone solve a problem.

When I shifted my perspective to serving rather than selling, that’s when it actually became a lot easier. I believed I had a solution that could truly help people and the only way they would know about it is if I talked about it or offered it.

Even more than that, I had to learn that people weren’t going to come to me in the beginning. I had to go out and find people that needed my help if I was ever going to make money. If they said no, I had to learn to not take it personal and find someone who would say yes. It wasn’t until I built up a clientele that I was then having people reach out to me through referrals.

When you come from a place of serving, then you focus on how you can provide value and help them solve their problem.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.courtneymarieco.com
• Instagram: @courtneymarie.me
• Other: Coffee with Courtney Podcast

Image Credits
Photography credit: Julianna Rennard